Fancy Dress Ideas For Toddlers

A fancy dress is probably the first competition for your child. If you want her to look and feel her best at one such event, try these absolutely DIY, fun and creative ideas.

By
Vijaishri Aniruddhan

Dressing up in fancy costumes can be a wonderful experience for both you and your child. Fancy dress competitions are often held in kindergarten school and community forums and typically require your child to dress up and speak a few words to express the character they depict. The judgment criteria include the costume, make-up, expression and gestures, novelty and overall impression.

It is also possible to host a competition at your own home on your child’s birthday or during festival seasons like Diwali, Christmas or Eid or to celebrate a grandparent’s retirement, or a close family member’s marriage.

While the idea of dressing up is fun by itself, picking the right costume can be hard – especially, when your child is at an age when he is not sure what he wants. There are plenty of costumes that are readily available online and brick-mortar stores. In major cities, you can even hire costumes on a per-day basis. But the best costumes are the ones that are made at home, as they involve the parent’s and the child’s creativity. Here are a few DIY costume ideas that can help your child bag the prize:

5 dress ideas for boys

1. A spider:

Things you need:

● Black T-shirt, pants and a cap

● Socks with cotton/sponge stuffed

● Black lace to tie the stuffed socks from the arm

2. A robot:

Things you need:

● Two cardboard boxes with holes - one for the head and one for the body.

● Paint to add features on the box

3. A dragon:

Things you need

● A pullover with a hoodie and pants

● Little spikes made out of cardboard/chart paper to stick from head to waist on the back and on the tail

● A stuffed sock/stocking for a tail

4. An alien:

Things you need

● Green face paint to add features on the face

● Green shirt and pants

● Black dye to draw extra eyes on the forehead and the back of the palm

5. A clock:

Things you need:

● Two chart papers cut in circle

● Thread to hang the chart papers to hang off the shoulder

● Paint to add the features of the clock on the chart paper

5 dress ideas for girls

1. A honey bee

Things you need:

● A golden yellow dress

● Black laces to tie around the child as stripes

● Metal wire and table tennis ball for the antenna

● A black headband to attach the antenna

● Gauze paper for the wings

2. A cupcake

Things you need:

● An old plastic bucket with a two holes made at the bottom for the legs to go through

● Thick white towel to be draped around the child for the cream layer on top

● Bright colored chart paper to be wrapped around the bucket to form the ‘cup’ in the cup cake

3. A sunflower

Things you need:

● Yellow chart paper, cut into the shape of petals and attached to the head

● Green colour dress for the stalk part of the flower

● Green chart paper, cut into the shape of leaves and attached to the hands

● Paint to add features to the petals and leaves

4. A chef

Things you need:

● White colour shirt and skirt

● Black buttons to pin on the front of the shirt

● White chart paper to make the chef’s cap

● A rolling pin and a pan

5. A fairy

Things you need:

● Gauze paper for wings

● A long pencil for the wand

● Chart to make the star on top of the wand

● Glitter for the wings and the wand

● Any bright dress

5 hacks to get your toddler ready

1. Have your child practice the lines before a mirror. This will help overcome her nervousness

2. Encourage your child in a positive manner when she enters the competition

3. Follow the rules of the competition including being on time and following the theme

4. Check if all the costumes are holding tight. You don’t want the costume to come apart on stage

5. Check if the costume is suffocating or making your child uncomfortable

4 ways to build your toddler’s confidence

A fancy-dress competition is possibly the first competition that your toddler is going to enter into. There are probably other kids who have equal chances of winning, despite your best efforts. How do you ensure this doesn’t affect your child’s confidence?

Here are a few tips:

● Teach him to see the good in himself

● Never compare your toddler with other kids

● If your child is shy or nervous, don’t talk about it

● Use positive assertion

Avenues for learning

It is also important to teach your toddler what his costume represents. For example, if you pick a spider costume for your boy, you could ask him to observe what a spider does – teach him how it moves, finds food and builds its web. This will be an opportunity for him to learn new things as well as to understand the character better. Also, when it is time to recite the lines during the competition, he will know why he is saying them.

This way fancy dressing can be fun, educative and build self-confidence in the child. It can bring her out of her comfort zone and help her develop social skills.

To know more about fancy dress competition and its importance to a child, go through the pages of this ClipBook.